Solar as a Service is the name for an agreement where homeowners and businesses get solar panels installed at no upfront cost to themselves, but pay the solar company over an extended period of time.

A lease agreement will usually take the form of a fixed payment, which may or may not increase as time progresses. In return, you reap all the benefits of the reduced energy bills from having solar panels installed, but do not own them outright.

In residential solar as a service models, you may or may not have ownership of the solar panels during the payment period. Check with the company and the terms of your agreement.

Crucially, it is the solar installation company which handles the cost of installing the solar panels, not the customers.

Any maintenance or repairs, and their costs, will likely also fall under the remit of the solar company, leaving you with little to no work involved with having a solar PV system installed.

Solar as a Service agreements are typically long term contracts, ranging anywhere from 10 – 30 years, though this will depend on the individual company.

Power Purchase Agreements work slightly differently from solar panel leasing in that you are paying directly for the electricity made by the solar panels.

This usually involves a price per kWh, which is set below the market price you would be paying for electricity directly from the grid.

The price of electricity in PPAs is usually indexed to inflation, and will go up each year while remaining discounted compared to the market.

When you enter into a contract for solar as a service, the payment you make will typically take one of two forms:

What payment method applies to you will depend on whether your solar panels were installed with a lease or extended contract, or with a power purchase agreement.

There are multiple companies in Ireland which provide solar as a service for homes and businesses to go green.

Solar as a Service has the advantage that homes and businesses can start saving money immediately without having to take on significant expenses or debt.

The price of the agreement per month will typically be less than what you are saving on electricity, giving immediate financial benefits.

This is in comparison to buying solar panels outright, where the first several years are spent paying back the cost of the system.

On the other hand, in the long term, the cost paid for solar as a service agreement will exceed what it would have cost to purchase the solar panels.

At the end of most solar as a service agreements, whether it is a lease or power purchase agreement, any solar panels installed on your building will become your property.

In many agreements, you may be able to buy out the remainder of the contract term if you have the funds available, and acquire early ownership of the solar panels.

Depending on the specifics of your lease agreement, any surplus solar electricity which goes unused could still generate revenue for you by selling it back to the grid.

This is done either through the microgeneration support scheme for systems under 50kWp in size, or the Small Scale Renewable Energy Support Scheme for larger systems.